Success! HPV Rate In Teen Girls Drops By Half Thanks To Vaccine

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Maybe it's Hannah Horvath's infection on HBO's Girls, Michael Douglas' somewhat misstated oral sex comment, or the increasing ubiquity of Gardasil and other new-ish vaccines. Whatever the reason, the rate of HPV infections among teen girls in America has dropped by nearly half from 2006 to 2010 — from about 7 percent to slightly over 3 percent.

The success has led a spokesperson from the CDC to suggest that if the trend continues, there's the hope that it will eradicate an entire generation's risk of cervical cancer, according to the New York Times. (HPV is responsible for 70 percent of the strains of the disease.)

Unfortunately, while more than half of teenage girls have received at least the first in the series of vaccination shots, many parents are reticent to have their children vaccinated, especially if they're not having sex yet (at least, as far as the parents know). But medical professionals actually suggest the vaccination be administered before the child is exposed to any risk of infection, preferably sometime before they turn 20.

Great news, for sure, but we're still lagging behind European countries like England and Denmark, which boast an 80 percent HPV vaccination rate. Even Rwanda, Africa is doing better than us. We gotta step up this ish.